Atheist Nexus2016-12-09T15:06:57ZDyslexic's DOGhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DislexicDoggyhttp://api.ning.com:80/files/vlKUFPodnGVvbE-Qz9vuQlzH8TgvlVDwOBiAFLL5EcZ2gF6RVffGLTPBcQbrU8EDmmWdelGErRQjjsFG0ABMjACERMUcmcni/1122839987.jpeg?xgip=46%3A1%3A597%3A597%3B%3B&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://atheistnexus.org/group/atheistswholovescience/forum/topic/listForContributor?user=2be46txft4xyi&feed=yes&xn_auth=noCorrupt Sciencetag:atheistnexus.org,2016-11-22:2182797:Topic:27198812016-11-22T04:02:17.806ZDyslexic's DOGhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DislexicDoggy
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/climate-change-in-trumps-age-of-ignorance.html?_r=0&amp;referer=" target="_blank">Climate Change in Trump’s Age of Ignorance</a></p>
<blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">We now live in a world where ignorance of a very dangerous sort is being deliberately manufactured, to protect certain kinds of unfettered corporate enterprise.</p>
</blockquote>
<p> …</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/climate-change-in-trumps-age-of-ignorance.html?_r=0&amp;referer=" target="_blank">Climate Change in Trump’s Age of Ignorance</a></p>
<blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">We now live in a world where ignorance of a very dangerous sort is being deliberately manufactured, to protect certain kinds of unfettered corporate enterprise.</p>
</blockquote>
<p> Robert N. Proctor</p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/21oynV1A7zJkDBKo7rH-C2Uiae7aGkhbkkn*qqH0emeLh8oTQ9mLZWHBWek-qTYVd6huHQzU10aKyljHjp4*L**7nA1-2VFU/ignorancemanuf.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/21oynV1A7zJkDBKo7rH-C2Uiae7aGkhbkkn*qqH0emeLh8oTQ9mLZWHBWek-qTYVd6huHQzU10aKyljHjp4*L**7nA1-2VFU/ignorancemanuf.jpg?width=350" class="align-center" width="350"/></a></p>
<blockquote><p>... little attention was given to <strong>science as an instrument of popular deception</strong>. We like to think of science as the opposite of ignorance, the light that washes away the darkness, but there’s much more to that story.</p>
<p>... I learned that cigarette makers had been giving millions of dollars to Harvard and other elite institutions to curry favor. I also started understanding how <strong>science could be used as an instrument of deception — and to create or perpetuate ignorance</strong>.</p>
<p>... science was one of the instruments used by Big Tobacco to carry out its denial (and distraction) campaign.</p>
<p>Cigarette makers promised to finance research to get to the truth, while privately acknowledging (in a notorious Brown &amp; Williamson document from 1969) that “Doubt is our product.”For decades thereafter, cigarette makers poured hundreds of millions of dollars into basic biomedical research, exploring things like genetic and viral or occupational causes of cancer — anything but tobacco. Research financed by the industry led to over 7,000 publications in peer-reviewed medical literature and 10 Nobel Prizes. Including consulting relationships, my research shows that at least 25 Nobel laureates have taken money from the cigarette industry over the past half-century.</p>
<p>... many other industries have learned from Big Tobacco’s playbook. Physicians hired by the National Football League have questioned the evidence that concussions can cause brain disease, and soda sellers have financed research to deny that sugar causes obesity. And climate deniers have conducted a kind of scavenger hunt for oddities that appear to challenge the overwhelming consensus of climate scientists. [emphasis mine]</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/soon-fossil-fuels.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/soon-fossil-fuels.png?width=350" class="align-center" width="350"/></a><a href="http://www.occupy.com/article/harvard-smithsonian-climate-skeptic-took-12-million-fossil-fuel-corporations#sthash.lfkWDmmd.dpbs" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Jeff Nesbit, in his recent book, “Poison Tea: How Big Oil and Big Tobacco Invented the Tea Party and Captured the G.O.P.<em>,”</em> documents how Big Tobacco joined with Big Oil in the early 1990s to create anti-tax front groups. These AstroTurf organizations waged a concerted effort to defend the unencumbered sale of cigarettes and petro-products. The breathtaking idea was to protect tobacco and oil from regulation and taxes by starting a movement that would combat <em>all</em> regulation and <em>all</em> taxes.</p>
<p><strong>We now live in a world where ignorance of a very dangerous sort is being deliberately manufactured, to protect certain kinds of unfettered corporate enterprise.</strong> The global climate catastrophe gets short shrift, largely because powerful fossil fuel producers still have enormous political clout, following decades-long campaigns to sow doubt about whether anthropogenic emissions are really causing planetary warming. Trust in science suffers, but also trust in government. And that is not an accident.</p>
<p><strong>Part of the strategy</strong>, according to Mr. Nesbit, who worked for a group involved in the effort and witnessed firsthand the beginning of this devil’s dance, <strong>was to sow doubt by corrupting expertise</strong>, while simultaneously capturing the high ground of open-mindedness and even caution itself, with the deceptive mantra: “We need more research.” [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.usnews.com/dims4/USNEWS/31132ed/2147483647/resize/300x%3E/quality/85/?url=%2Fcmsmedia%2F50%2Fc8%2Ff9d682ec44d3852338e3819414d2%2F160513-poisontea-editorial.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.usnews.com/dims4/USNEWS/31132ed/2147483647/resize/300x%3E/quality/85/?url=%2Fcmsmedia%2F50%2Fc8%2Ff9d682ec44d3852338e3819414d2%2F160513-poisontea-editorial.jpg&amp;width=200" style="padding: 20px;" class="align-left" width="200"/></a>The corruption of scientific expertise is something we <em>must</em> face, particularly as corporate strategy.</p> Super-Silktag:atheistnexus.org,2016-10-10:2182797:Topic:27122032016-10-10T19:40:24.511ZDyslexic's DOGhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DislexicDoggy
<p><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/silkworms-spin-super-silk-after-eating-carbon-nanotubes-and-graphene/" target="_blank">Silkworms Spin Super-Silk After Eating Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene</a></p>
<p>Conductive extra strong silk, suitable for electronics and medical implants can be produced by feeding silk larvae "mulberry leaves sprayed with aqueous solutions containing 0.2% by weight of either carbon nanotubes or graphene".</p>
<blockquote><p>... the carbon-enhanced…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/silkworms-spin-super-silk-after-eating-carbon-nanotubes-and-graphene/" target="_blank">Silkworms Spin Super-Silk After Eating Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene</a></p>
<p>Conductive extra strong silk, suitable for electronics and medical implants can be produced by feeding silk larvae "mulberry leaves sprayed with aqueous solutions containing 0.2% by weight of either carbon nanotubes or graphene".</p>
<blockquote><p>... the carbon-enhanced silks are twice as tough and can withstand at least 50% higher stress before breaking.</p>
<p>The modified silks conduct electricity,...</p>
<p>The electrical conductivity of the carbon-reinforced silk might make it suitable for sensors embedded in smart textiles and to read nerve signals,...</p>
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<p><a href="http://cen.acs.org/content/cen/articles/94/web/2016/10/Silkworms-eat-carbon-nanotubes-graphene/_jcr_content/articlebody/subpar/articlemedia_1.img.jpg/1475696195490.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://cen.acs.org/content/cen/articles/94/web/2016/10/Silkworms-eat-carbon-nanotubes-graphene/_jcr_content/articlebody/subpar/articlemedia_1.img.jpg/1475696195490.jpg?width=300" class="align-center" width="300"/></a><a href="http://cen.acs.org/articles/94/web/2016/10/Silkworms-eat-carbon-nanotubes-graphene.html" target="_blank">image source</a></p> Planetary Context of the Anthropocenetag:atheistnexus.org,2016-10-01:2182797:Topic:27114532016-10-01T21:04:29.209ZDyslexic's DOGhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DislexicDoggy
<p><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/10/01/495437158/climate-change-and-the-astrobiology-of-the-anthropocene" target="_blank">Climate Change And The Astrobiology Of The Anthropocene</a></p>
<p>Adam Frank makes the case that, on a fundamental level, we don't understand the problem of climate change.</p>
<p>"<span class="font-size-3" style="color: #ff00ff;"><strong>We've failed to culturally metabolize is the <em>meaning</em> of what's happening to us and the planet.</strong></span>"…</p>
<p><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/10/01/495437158/climate-change-and-the-astrobiology-of-the-anthropocene" target="_blank">Climate Change And The Astrobiology Of The Anthropocene</a></p>
<p>Adam Frank makes the case that, on a fundamental level, we don't understand the problem of climate change.</p>
<p>"<span class="font-size-3" style="color: #ff00ff;"><strong>We've failed to culturally metabolize is the <em>meaning</em> of what's happening to us and the planet.</strong></span>" We'll never solve the problem of climate change, our final exam as it were, until we understand the problem.</p>
<p>Any sentient species that advances to the point of a planet-wide civilization would face similar challenges. His graph presents a perspective on possible trajectories for us and other such species.</p>
<p><a href="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/09/29/co21-ad320d78b541f2a90361d73d011553ec3e07f74a-s700-c85.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/09/29/co21-ad320d78b541f2a90361d73d011553ec3e07f74a-s700-c85.jpg" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<div class="credit-caption"><div class="caption-wrap"><div class="caption"><blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">Possible trajectories of history for a young species building a energy intensive technological civilization. This plot shows the trajectories defined by 3 variables: Population (N); energy use (ec) and the degree of feedback on the planet. Harvesting energy allows the species to grow rapidly until the feedback from that energy use changes the planets climate. <span class="credit">Frank &amp; Sullivan 2014</span></p>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<blockquote><p></p>
<p>… We have <em>not</em> gotten the science wrong. The Earth's climate is changing because of human activity.</p>
<p>But the part of climate change we've failed to culturally metabolize is the <em>meaning</em> of what's happening to us and the planet.</p>
<p>In other words, <strong>what we don't get is the true planetary context of the planetary transformation human civilization is driving</strong>.</p>
<p>… the astrobiology of the Anthropocene… means looking at what's happening to us today from the broadest possible perspective.</p>
<p>Astrobiology is fundamentally a study of planets and their "habitability" for life. But sustainability is really just a concern over the habitability of one planet (Earth) for a certain kind of species (homo sapiens) with a certain kind of organization (modern civilization). That means <strong>our urgent questions about <em>sustainability</em> are a subset of questions about <em>habitability</em></strong>. The key point, here, is the planets in our own solar system, like Mars, show us that <strong>habitability is not forever. It will likely be a moving target over time. The same idea is likely true for sustainability — and we are going to need a plan for that</strong>.</p>
<p>…<strong>climate change and the sustainability crises may best be seen as our "final exam"</strong> (as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Planetary-Climate-Raymond-Pierrehumbert/dp/0521865565">Raymond PierreHumbert</a> calls it). Better yet, it's our coming of age as a true planetary species.</p>
<p>We will either make it across to the other side with the maturity to "<a href="http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2013/09/27/building-cities-that-think-like-planets/">think</a> like a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GWMTNM0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1">planet</a>" or the planet will just move on without us. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Based on everything I've learned, I think we're somewhere near the pink dot, maybe a little further along toward the first big population crash. The UN predicts serious climate change caused food shortages by 2024.</p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/VvUMGQ4qJezEmqVZVTYtjTrmyFnLk3aCUf3lmJOvwNmiaAH0o2rEl4ETJVA2MYW2um7sm-6yyZB-khochHr7r8fMS5K8CTVb/Untitledonthecurve.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/VvUMGQ4qJezEmqVZVTYtjTrmyFnLk3aCUf3lmJOvwNmiaAH0o2rEl4ETJVA2MYW2um7sm-6yyZB-khochHr7r8fMS5K8CTVb/Untitledonthecurve.jpg" class="align-center" width="384"/></a>What do you think?</p> 3-D Printed Bone Repairtag:atheistnexus.org,2016-09-29:2182797:Topic:27108722016-09-29T01:13:52.284ZDyslexic's DOGhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DislexicDoggy
<p><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/print-demand-bone-could-quickly-mend-major-injuries?utm_source=sciencemagazine&amp;utm_medium=reddit&amp;utm_campaign=boneprint-7879" target="_blank">Print-on-demand bone could quickly mend major injuries</a></p>
<p>Hyperelastic bone may soon enable easier major bone repairs.…</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/print-demand-bone-could-quickly-mend-major-injuries?utm_source=sciencemagazine&amp;utm_medium=reddit&amp;utm_campaign=boneprint-7879" target="_blank">Print-on-demand bone could quickly mend major injuries</a></p>
<p>Hyperelastic bone may soon enable easier major bone repairs.</p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vDq19vhV0OSsrWVA2zmWNxzySkJlb9NglOrVNQdBwU7wLKNnnfGrCDP2Z4z1SkrKTyNjviGTldNiS94yyy5iOWFha8HZ2Sdz/3Dbone.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vDq19vhV0OSsrWVA2zmWNxzySkJlb9NglOrVNQdBwU7wLKNnnfGrCDP2Z4z1SkrKTyNjviGTldNiS94yyy5iOWFha8HZ2Sdz/3Dbone.jpg?width=450" class="align-center" width="450"/></a>Screen grab from the impressive video.</p>
<blockquote><p>Researchers have created what they call “hyperelastic bone” that can be manufactured on demand and works almost as well as the real thing, at least in monkeys and rats. Though not ready to be implanted in humans, bioengineers are optimistic that the material could be a much-needed leap forward in quickly mending injuries ranging from bones wracked by cancer to broken skulls.</p>
<p>Their hyperelastic bone is a type of scaffold made up of hydroxyapatite, a naturally occurring mineral that exists in our bones and teeth, and a biocompatible polymer called polycaprolactone, and a solvent. Hydroxyapatite provides strength and offers chemical cues to stem cells to create bone. The polycaprolactone polymer adds flexibility, and the solvent sticks the 3D-printed layers together as it evaporates during printing.</p>
<p>The idea is, a patient would come in with a nasty broken bone—say, a shattered jaw—and ... he or she could be x-rayed and a 3D-printed hyperelastic bone scaffold could be printed that same day. “We’re printing flexible scaffolds that will encourage bone to grow through and around them,”...</p>
<p>... the team first tested their 3D-printed scaffold as a material to fuse spinal vertebrae in rats.</p>
<p>Eight weeks after the Northwestern researchers implanted the hyperelastic bone, they found that new blood vessels had grown into their scaffold—a necessary step to keep bone-forming tissue alive—and calcified bone started to form from the rats’ existing stem cells.</p>
<p>... hyperelastic bone would be cheap to print. ... the researchers were able to create the scaffolds ... in less than 5 hours ... That means future scaffolds could be printed to exact specs, which would be useful in facial reconstruction, or printed into sheets that surgeons could cut and paste into the shape they want,...</p>
</blockquote> Cold Vaccine Progresstag:atheistnexus.org,2016-09-28:2182797:Topic:27106132016-09-28T23:48:51.009ZDyslexic's DOGhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DislexicDoggy
<p><a href="http://digg.com/2016/common-cold-vaccine" target="_blank">A Vaccine For The Common Cold May Be Near</a></p>
<blockquote><p>A vaccine against rhinoviruses, the predominant cause of the common cold, is achievable, scientists say.</p>
<p>“We think that creating a vaccine for the common cold can be reduced to technical challenges related to manufacturing,”...</p>
<p>We just took 50 types of rhinovirus and mixed them together into our vaccine, and made sure we had enough of each one,”…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://digg.com/2016/common-cold-vaccine" target="_blank">A Vaccine For The Common Cold May Be Near</a></p>
<blockquote><p>A vaccine against rhinoviruses, the predominant cause of the common cold, is achievable, scientists say.</p>
<p>“We think that creating a vaccine for the common cold can be reduced to technical challenges related to manufacturing,”...</p>
<p>We just took 50 types of rhinovirus and mixed them together into our vaccine, and made sure we had enough of each one,” Moore says. “If we make a vaccine with 50 or 100 variants, it’s the same amount of total protein in a single dose of vaccine. The variants are like a bunch of slightly different Christmas ornaments, not really like 50 totally different vaccines mixed.”</p>
<p>A mixture of 25 types of inactivated rhinovirus can stimulate neutralizing antibodies against all 25 in mice, and a mixture of 50 types can do the same thing in rhesus macaques. In this paper, antibodies generated in response to the vaccine were tested for their ability to prevent the virus from infecting human cells in culture. However, the vaccines were not tested for their ability to stop animals from getting sick.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vDq19vhV0OSZRB4igUQQmL2hbughT6YajuVktS-JPHkUXLRmjp3jX5PzQ6mGITxu1m6jAPckXSRmAVjoUKcMPA0H0tJqlYt*/coldvaccine.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/vDq19vhV0OSZRB4igUQQmL2hbughT6YajuVktS-JPHkUXLRmjp3jX5PzQ6mGITxu1m6jAPckXSRmAVjoUKcMPA0H0tJqlYt*/coldvaccine.jpg?width=450" class="align-center" width="450"/></a></p> Publish-Or-Perish Guarantees Flawed Researchtag:atheistnexus.org,2016-09-21:2182797:Topic:27103202016-09-21T23:08:42.223ZDyslexic's DOGhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DislexicDoggy
<p><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21707513-poor-scientific-methods-may-be-hereditary-why-bad-science-persists" target="_blank">Why bad science persists</a></p>
<p>Computer simulation of the academic publication process explained why "published studies in psychology, neuroscience and medicine" haven't improved validity in 50 years.</p>
<blockquote><p>... <strong>an evolutionary computer model in which 100 laboratories competed for “pay-offs” representing prestige…</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21707513-poor-scientific-methods-may-be-hereditary-why-bad-science-persists" target="_blank">Why bad science persists</a></p>
<p>Computer simulation of the academic publication process explained why "published studies in psychology, neuroscience and medicine" haven't improved validity in 50 years.</p>
<blockquote><p>... <strong>an evolutionary computer model in which 100 laboratories competed for “pay-offs” representing prestige or funding that result from publications</strong>. They used the volume of publications to calculate these pay-offs because the length of a researcher’s CV is a known proxy of professional success. Labs that garnered more pay-offs were more likely to pass on their methods to other, newer labs (their “progeny”).</p>
<p><strong>Some labs</strong> were better able to spot new results (and thus garner pay-offs) than others. Yet these labs also tended to produce more false positives—their methods <strong>were good at detecting signals in noisy data but also</strong>, as Cohen suggested, <strong>often mistook noise for a signal</strong>. More thorough labs took time to rule these false positives out, but that slowed down the rate at which they could test new hypotheses. This, in turn, meant they published fewer papers.</p>
<p>In each cycle of “reproduction”, all the laboratories in the model performed and published their experiments. Then one—the oldest of a randomly selected subset—“died” and was removed from the model. Next, the lab with the highest pay-off score from another randomly selected group was allowed to reproduce, creating a new lab with a similar aptitude for creating real or bogus science.</p>
<p>Sharp-eyed readers will notice that <strong>this process is similar to that of natural selection</strong>,...</p>
<p>..., <span class="font-size-3"><strong>they found that labs which expended the least effort to eliminate junk science prospered and spread their methods throughout the virtual scientific community</strong></span>. Their next result, however, was surprising. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/20160924_STD001.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/20160924_STD001.jpg?width=450" width="450"/></a></p>
<p>... <strong>the process of replicating the work of people in other labs is supposed to be one of the things that keeps science on the straight and narrow. But the two researchers’ model suggests it may not do so, even in principle</strong>.</p>
<p>A successful replication would boost the reputation of the lab that published the original result. Failure to replicate would result in a penalty. Worryingly, <strong>poor methods still won—albeit more slowly</strong>. This was true in even the most punitive version of the model, in which labs received a penalty 100 times the value of the original “pay-off” for a result that failed to replicate, and replication rates were high (half of all results were subject to replication efforts).</p>
<p><strong>The researchers’ conclusion is therefore that when the ability to publish copiously in journals determines a lab’s success, then “top-performing laboratories will always be those who are able to cut corners”—and that is regardless of the supposedly corrective process of replication.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ultimately, therefore, the way to end the proliferation of bad science is ... for universities and funding agencies to stop rewarding researchers who publish copiously over those who publish fewer, but perhaps higher-quality papers.</strong> [emphasis mine]</p> Earth like planet may be only 4.25 light-years away.tag:atheistnexus.org,2016-08-14:2182797:Topic:27033592016-08-14T11:08:00.305ZDyslexic's DOGhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DislexicDoggy
<p>The German weekly <a style="text-decoration: underline; color: #2585b2;">Der Spiegel</a> announced yesterday that astronomers have discovered an Earth like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, just 4.25 light-years away. Yes, in what is an apparent trifecta, this newly-discovered exoplanet is Earth-like, orbits within it's sun's habitable zone, and is within our reach.…</p>
<p></p>
<p>The German weekly <a style="text-decoration: underline; color: #2585b2;">Der Spiegel</a> announced yesterday that astronomers have discovered an Earth like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, just 4.25 light-years away. Yes, in what is an apparent trifecta, this newly-discovered exoplanet is Earth-like, orbits within it's sun's habitable zone, and is within our reach.</p>
<p><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?hl=en&amp;shva=1#inbox/156856ebe39313e0">https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?hl=en&amp;shva=1#inbox/156856ebe39313e0</a></p>
<p></p> Acoustic Prismtag:atheistnexus.org,2016-08-12:2182797:Topic:27029852016-08-12T22:59:46.177ZDyslexic's DOGhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DislexicDoggy
<p><a href="http://actu.epfl.ch/news/acoustic-prism-invented-at-epfl/" target="_blank">Acoustic Prism Invented at EPFL</a></p>
<p>Now a sound can be split into its constituent frequencies!</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6sSBPxAv2qk?wmode=opaque" width="626"></iframe>
</p>
<blockquote><p>Hervé Lissek and his team at EPFL have invented an "acoustic prism" that splits sound into its constituent frequencies using physical properties…</p>
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<p><a href="http://actu.epfl.ch/news/acoustic-prism-invented-at-epfl/" target="_blank">Acoustic Prism Invented at EPFL</a></p>
<p>Now a sound can be split into its constituent frequencies!</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6sSBPxAv2qk?wmode=opaque" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" width="626"></iframe>
</p>
<blockquote><p>Hervé Lissek and his team at EPFL have invented an "acoustic prism" that splits sound into its constituent frequencies using physical properties alone.</p>
<p>Decomposing sound into its constituent frequencies relies on the physical interaction between a sound wave and the structure of the prism. The acoustic prism modifies the propagation of each individual frequency of the sound wave, without any need of computations or electronic components.</p>
<p>The acoustic prism looks like a rectangular tube made of aluminum, complete with ten, perfectly aligned holes along one side. Each hole leads to an air-filled cavity inside the tube, and a membrane is placed between two consecutive cavities.</p>
<p>When sound is directed into the tube at one end, high-frequency components of the sound escape out of the tube through the holes near the source, while low frequencies escape through the holes that are further away, towards the other end of the tube. Like light through an optical prism, the sound is dispersed, with the dispersion angle depending on the wave’s frequency.</p>
<p>The membranes are key, since they vibrate and transmit the sound to the neighboring cavities with a delay that depends on frequency. The delayed sound then leaks through the holes and towards the exterior, dispersing the sound.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://actu.epfl.ch/static/upload/fckeditorimage/0e/db/c895f820.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://actu.epfl.ch/static/upload/fckeditorimage/0e/db/c895f820.jpg?width=450" width="450"/></a></p> Hyperkeystone Speciestag:atheistnexus.org,2016-06-21:2182797:Topic:26931432016-06-21T19:44:09.459ZDyslexic's DOGhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DislexicDoggy
<p>By treating humans as an externality in ecosystem studies, we were missing that <em>we</em> were the final keystone species. This was a worse scientific error than overlooking the observer effect.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/06/humans-the-hyperkeystone-species/487985/" target="_blank">Humans: The Hyperkeystone Species</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The last paper from one of the world’s greatest ecologists challenges his peers to think about humanity’s influence…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By treating humans as an externality in ecosystem studies, we were missing that <em>we</em> were the final keystone species. This was a worse scientific error than overlooking the observer effect.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/06/humans-the-hyperkeystone-species/487985/" target="_blank">Humans: The Hyperkeystone Species</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The last paper from one of the world’s greatest ecologists challenges his peers to think about humanity’s influence on the world.</p>
<p>Bob Paine ... called them keystone species after the central stone that keeps an arch from crumbling. It’s an idea that has itself taken a central place in ecology. But in analyzing the outcomes of his starfish experiment, Paine missed something obvious and important: his own part in them.</p>
<p>Paine left himself and his 7.4 billion peers out of the very framework that he had created. At a conference last October, <a href="http://wormlab.biology.dal.ca/publication/view/worm-b-myers-ra-2003-meta-analysis-of-cod-shrimp-interactions-reveals-top-down-control-in-oceanic-food-webs-ecology-84-162-173/">Boris Worm</a>, an ecologist who had known Paine for a few decades, asked him <strong>if he thought humans also counted as keystone species</strong>.</p>
<p>“Oh, we’re above that,” Paine replied. “<strong>We’re hyperkeystones.</strong>”</p>
<p><strong>We are the influencer of influencers, the keystone species that disproportionately affects other keystone species, the ur-stone that dictates the fate of every arch.</strong></p>
<p>“People now strongly influence all natural ecosystems,... to such an extent that as scientists we cannot even begin to understand how the ecosystems work if we do not first account for the ways in which people are changing them.”</p>
<p>And in doing so, ecology had become a largely descriptive science.</p>
<p>... recent examples hint at what we’re missing. In the northwest Atlantic, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17395829">we overfished big sharks</a>, releasing smaller sharks and rays from predatory control; they devoured shellfish and caused a century-old scallop fishery to collapse.</p>
<p>... Worm and Paine wrote about the hyperkeystone concept <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534716300659">in a new paper</a> that’s meant to both galvanize and challenge their peers. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>"The ur-stone that dictates the fate of every arch" conjures fantasy images, but it's powerful enough to capture the human overpopulation's ubiquitous invisible devastation of Earth's ecosystems. We really are pulling out the keystones of every food web, all over the planet.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/IyL7kBxUtndPfhRlKvMCrSIoSHBci8Uzchguj-pzbmYCzXveaDFPEmEPTH3vrURjgR3Ox*Xmm3CAoBcLSVksSZWVfT*S4xOa/archcollapse.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/IyL7kBxUtndPfhRlKvMCrSIoSHBci8Uzchguj-pzbmYCzXveaDFPEmEPTH3vrURjgR3Ox*Xmm3CAoBcLSVksSZWVfT*S4xOa/archcollapse.jpg?width=450" width="450"/></a><a href="https://www.nps.gov/arch/learn/news/news080808.htm" target="_blank">before and after images of arch collapse source</a></p> Atheism isn’t enough, and it isn’t very satisfyingtag:atheistnexus.org,2016-06-18:2182797:Topic:26926632016-06-18T23:57:25.250ZDyslexic's DOGhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DislexicDoggy
<p>I read this very often, and it reminds me of my training at the master’s degree level. Fellow students often complained about the lack of control for assignments. That puzzled me because the lack of guidance implied I was free to explore using any process that seemed right for me. I understood that if I made poor choices, I would be corrected. </p>
<p>The same applies to the statement “Atheism isn’t enough, and it isn’t very satisfying”.</p>
<p>Atheism gives me the freedom to explore,…</p>
<p>I read this very often, and it reminds me of my training at the master’s degree level. Fellow students often complained about the lack of control for assignments. That puzzled me because the lack of guidance implied I was free to explore using any process that seemed right for me. I understood that if I made poor choices, I would be corrected. </p>
<p>The same applies to the statement “Atheism isn’t enough, and it isn’t very satisfying”.</p>
<p>Atheism gives me the freedom to explore, experiment, debate, examine, question, investigate, observe, and dispute on any issue I confront that is important to me.</p>
<p>My primary concern in school was family violence. I discovered there was not one book in the entire library system of Spokane addressing that subject. Even private libraries had nothing. I found a few research reports in my literature review, but at that time, 1975, few people were looking at that problem. I reached out to the interlibrary loan system from other city libraries. I purchased books for my private library. I conducted many interviews over the phone with the then known experts in the field. I had no computer in those days.</p>
<p>I followed the same process when leaving christianity. I explored belief systems for their practices, principles, and philosophies. I tipped my toe into other systems, i.e. Taoism, Buddhism, Witchcraft, and none of them made sense to me; they each involved some magical element.<br/>I suppose it was Carl Sagan and his videos that led me to the fork in the road. I left beliefs and faith behind.</p>
<p>I found lots of confidence as I grew in understanding human behavior at the doctoral level of education. With a better grasp of power and helplessness, I became more competent in my thinking and in the choices I made. As my support system of atheist and non-believers in supernatural or demonic powers grew, I had a solid foundation develop under me. Instead of “Let go, and let god” I learned how to take on challenges, communicate with others, and develop trust in my power. I am not helpless. I am responsible for what I think and do. </p>
<p><span style="background-color: #f5f6f5;">Atheism is enough, and it satisfies my need for community.</span></p>